**Source: PSS vol. 35**

The complete text of our negotiations with Dukhnin has been printed, and I can confine myself to brief remarks. For us it was clear that we were dealing with an opponent of the people's will and an enemy of the revolution. On Dukhnin's side there were various evasions and stratagems aimed at dragging out the matter. Doubts were expressed concerning the authenticity of our telegram, and inquiries about its authenticity were directed not to Krylenko but to General Manikovsky. In this way the generals stole, at minimum, an entire day on such an important and pressing question as the question of peace. Only when we declared that we would appeal directly to the soldiers did General Dukhnin appear at the telegraph. We declared to Dukhnin that we require him to enter immediately into negotiations concerning an armistice, and nothing more. We did not grant Dukhnin the right to conclude an armistice. Not only is the question of concluding an armistice beyond Dukhnin's competence, but every step he takes in conducting negotiations concerning an armistice must be under the control of the People's Commissars. The bourgeois press reproaches us with the claim that we are allegedly proposing a separate armistice, that we are disregarding the interests of the Romanian army. This is sheer lies. We are proposing that peace negotiations begin immediately and that an armistice be concluded with all countries without exception. We have information that our radiograms reach Europe. Thus, our radiogram concerning the victory over Kerensky[6] was intercepted by an Austrian radiotelegraph and transmitted. The Germans, however, were sending counter-waves in order to block it. We have the possibility of communicating by radiogram with Paris, and when a peace treaty is drawn up, we will have the possibility of informing the French people that it can be signed and that it depends on the French people to conclude an armistice in two hours. We shall see what Clemenceau says then. Our party has never declared that it can deliver immediate peace. It said that it would issue an immediate proposal for peace and publish the secret treaties. And this has been done – the struggle for peace is beginning. This struggle will be difficult and stubborn. International imperialism will mobilize all its forces against us, but no matter how great the forces of international imperialism, our chances are most favorable; in this revolutionary struggle for peace and in the struggle for peace we shall combine revolutionary fraternization. The bourgeoisie would wish for a conspiracy of imperialist governments against us to be realized.